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Summary
In this episode, Mike Dauphinee sits down with Kirsten Hogan, Chief Retail Officer at Dr. Squatch, for a conversation about what it actually takes to reclaim your story, and build a career you genuinely love. Kirsten grew up in a town of 900 people in northern Maine, made a deliberate choice to point herself somewhere different, and never stopped making deliberate choices after that. She spent 19 years at UNFI, ran her own consultancy, then built Dr. Squatch's retail business from the ground up before a single bar of soap hit a store shelf. But this conversation isn't really about the numbers. It's about the moment she looked up and realized she had lost control of her message and her joy, and what she did about it.
About Kirsten Hogan (Responsibility · Arranger · Activator · Belief · Restorative)
Kirsten Hogan is the Chief Retail Officer at Dr. Squatch, where she leads all sales and retail strategy. Over the past five years, she has driven profitable retail growth from the ground up, building the initial roadmap with her team and scaling through the brand's acquisition by Unilever. She is a collaborative leader with a strong moral compass and an infectious energy that drives her team forward.
Takeaways
- Joy is a navigational instrument. If you can no longer feel it, you are already off course.
- Knowing what you won't do is often more useful than knowing what you want. Start there.
- Responsibility will carry whatever weight you give it. Learning to set it down is its own kind of strength.
- Being vulnerable in a room that's actually safe — and recognizing the difference — is a skill that takes practice.
- The people around you shape where you go more than the titles do. Choose accordingly.
- Belief is an anchor and an engine. It tells you the future is wide open and holds you steady while you find it.
- You can say yes to everything and build a great career. But at some point, you have to decide which yes is yours.
- Scrappiness can't be taught. Everything else can. Hire for the thing you can't build.
- The transition out of a job matters as much as the move in. Most people change without actually leaving.
- Set the end at the beginning. Name your non-negotiables before someone else fills in the blanks.
Soundbites
- "I knew deep down that wasn't for me, but I knew if I stayed, that was probably what I would do."
- "Responsibility is not given. It is taken."
- "I've lost control of my message and my joy. And I can't allow the company to just keep moving me around where they want me if that's not where I want to be."
- "You can teach someone how to sell soap. You can't teach scrappiness."
- "I still don't know what I want to do in 10 years. But I definitely know what I don't want to do."
- "Just because circumstances change doesn't mean the foundation has to crack."
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